SEMINAR: Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series

In the wake of choice: Perth’s autonomous women’s engagement with the discourse of choice via post-abortion narratives presented by Dorinda ’t Hart.

Pro-abortion discourse generally presents abortion as an unproblematic event in the course of a woman’s reproductive life. However, pre-field discussions with women confirm that an abortion experience is a significant episode in an individual’s life and not easily forgotten.
Further, current research tends to present some women as autonomous agents who have unobstructed access to abortion services while empirically examining barriers to access for those women who are considered less autonomous. However, this research fails to examine the intersection of women’s perceived autonomy and the internalisation of social norms that guide and inform a woman’s abortion decision. Via this research project, I aim to engage with women’s post-abortion narratives, shared through in-depth interviews throughout Perth. Through the recruitment of those women who consider themselves to be autonomous, I seek to understand each woman’s engagement with the discourse of choice and their ongoing negotiation of meaning of their abortion experience.

Older Vietnam-born people (OVP) make up the sixth largest migrant community in Australia; however, they are under-researched. To help address this gap in the literature, this study will examine OVP’s experiences of ageing and aged care, using qualitative research methods, including ethnographic interviews, participant observation, social media fieldwork, video recording, and social network analysis tools guided by an interpretive phenomenological paradigm and grounded theory. The central research question is “How are Vietnam-born parent migrants and parent visitors experiencing ageing and aged care in Australia and what is the role of their local, virtual and distant support networks?”. The research will be conducted in Perth and Melbourne, cities which have a large number of older Vietnam-born residents (ABS, 2016b). The research will target two groups: (i) parent migrants and (ii) parent visitors that represent a mix of past and recent Vietnamese migration to Australia.

Hien Thi Nguyen is a PhD student in the Anthropology and Sociology Discipline. Her research interests include domestic and transnational migration, ageing and aged care, women and gender and new media.